INFIDELITY FORGIVEN

Jim & Jill Kelly have quite a story to tell. Together with their children, they are a family infused with joy.

This wasn't always the case. As a football player Jim was regularly away from home. He just wanted to have fun and it wasn't long before he was being unfaithful to his wife. 

Around that same time they had a beautiful son, Hunter. But he was born with a rare disease. It devastated them and Jill really turned to God for hope. Jesus changed her heart and the forgiveness she found for previously ignoring her faith, she shared with her husband and freely forgave him. 

This is a marriage that has survived the storms of life. They asked the Lord to  give them the strength to battle through this situation with their son Hunter and he remained with them for eight years until he went to be with the Lord.

Jill captures their story in her beautiful book Etched Upon My Heart. It will make excellent reading for those who are struggling right now with their marriage.

They also began a foundation to fund research into the disease that claimed their son Hunter. And the proceeds from the sale will go toward the foundation.

I personally heard an interview of this couple and was so deeply impressed I wanted to share this with you. Also, you can look at their website at:  www.huntershope.org

AUSTRALIA my home

I love my sunburnt country. I love living here. I love its people. I love the God given freedom I experience every day of my life.

I love its golden sandy beaches and its unique bushland. Its mountains and its desserts.

I love the fact we all have come from different backgrounds and ethnicity. 

On Australia Day we celebrate all these things about our country. The Aussie barbecue around which folk gather, usually has lamb on the menu, though many love their prawns and barramundi fish.

I have lived overseas and have enjoyed the experience, but there's no place like home. Good old Australia!  

So if you're reading this, I'd like to say in our lingo, "Good on ya, mate!"

LOVE - 'OUT of the BLUE'

On a sunny February afternoon in 1997, Clayton King was preparing to preach to 3,000 college students at the University of North Carolina when he saw a young lady in the crowd. In some mysterious way, he knew he would marry her, though he had never seen her before and did not even know her name. 

This young man had an interesting background God began opening doors for Clayton to preach almost immediately after he was saved. He began ministering with a team at several local correctional facilities where he learned much about discernment, and being authentic. His experiences in prison ministry helped him develop a love for those that society forgets about, as well as wisdom when dealing with people from different circumstances. 

Clayton had always dreamed of playing football in college and the pros, but God had other plans. He was recruited by several small colleges and offered opportunities to pursue football, but a severe shoulder injury his Senior year made it obvious that football was not in his future. His dream of attending Clemson University almost became a reality when he received a full academic scholarship there, but he knew that God had called him to preach so he stepped out on faith and turned down all athletic opportunities and academic scholarships that would keep him from pursuing ministry. God provided and he received the Presidential Scholarship at Gardner-Webb University where he graduated in 1995 with a degree in Religious Studies as the Graduate of the Year. 

How did Clayton's  'out of the blue' belief that he had found that one special person turn out? Great as far as he was concerned. he actually got to meet Charie right after that event, she applied to work at Crossroads prison ministry, and they fell in love.

They were married on May 1, 1999 and have two amazing little boys named Jacob and Joseph.  Isn't it interesting how these things seem to be co-incidental? Well not to this couple. They believed the Lord led them to each other while they were involved in His work.














They met that night after the event, she applied to work at Crossroads, and they fell in love. They were married on May 1, 1999 and have two amazing little boys named Jacob and Joseph.

LOVE to SPARE

George, Rita, Prateep, Baptist Pastor, Machas, & Saenthong

Prateep is a small lady with a very big heart for the Lord Jesus.

She married her sweetheart and she and her husband began a church among the ricefields in Suphanburi, Central Thailand. Besides attending to her family Prateep faithfully laboured alongside her husband to build up their congregation.

Sadly after many happy and fruitful years together, Prateep's husband fell very ill. She believes the Lord prompted him to give her some excellent advice.

First, he told her to learn how to drive their car. Then he said she would need to learn some special skill to be able to provide for herself and the children. That was the very beginning of a change in her whole life, because some time later her love of many years died. She grieved, but thanked the Lord that her husband had given her the encouragement to become independent.

Prateep learned to design and sew beautiful items for sale, such as tablecloths, place-mats, tissue box covers etc. These exquisite, lacy pieces have become so popular that she now exports them throughout SE Asia. They are usually pastel-colored and often have seed pearls attached. I have several myself.

When her business began to grow she had the idea of handing out the work to local women to help them in turn to add to their small incomes. Better still, the love of Jesus shone through her personality. She has an appealing and quirky sense of humour and loves and cares for each one of her sewing workers.Not surprisingly, eventually forty of them became believers. Machas - in the photo above - is one of them who is now a close friend.

 After my husband and I took a Sunday service in Hotel Khon Kaen for international visitors, this picture shows some of our team. Prateep and Machas regularly join Somchai & Saenthong, Thai evangelists, in their travels throughout Thailand. It has been our great joy to minister alongside these enthusiastic Thais when we minister for a month each year to tell about Jesus.

GYNAECOLOGIST* CHANGED by PRAYER

Doctors Wallapa & Wirach  Wisawasukmongchol with their daughters

When you truly love someone, you'll never give up on them. That is the strongly held opinion of Dr Wallapa of Bangkok, Thailand.

As a convinced Buddhist, she and her husband were quite content in their busy, productive lifestyle. That is until one night this enthusiastic lady had a dream. She saw Jesus and wondered what it might mean. The next night she had the same dream and from then on tried to learn more about Him. Finding a christian church, she then began to grow in her faith.

However, convincing her husband about her new found Saviour was quite a different matter. He simply thought she was going through a phase and that it wouldn't last. "I am and will remain a Buddhist," he declared. As a successful gynaecologist* now teaching in the Dept.of Obstetrics and Gynaecology* in the Faculty of Medicine Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, he had a certain reputation to consider.

Wallapa soon learned she couldn't convince him to become a Christian, it could only be God who could do that. So each night she waited until he slept and holding one hand over him, she raised the other to God. "Please save him, Lord Jesus," she prayed. "Change my dear husband's heart." She never wavered in her longing and persisted in her prayers.

Twelve long years later Wirach came to believe and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. For those twelve years he had watched his loving wife and experienced her heartfelt concern for him. And now besides his medical work he pastors a growing Alliance church with the enthusiastic help of Wallapa and their children.

When this couple booked a special room in a large Bangkok hotel, we, along with our interpreter/evangelist Somchai Soonthornturasuk, had the privilege of sharing the Gospel and to explain Christianity to many of her colleagues, some of whom were parliamentarians.

Praise the Lord for her faithful, loving and persistent prayer!
*Australian spelling.